The long road to justice - Part 2 | 8
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Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. In early 2002, the body of a 21-year-old woman was found in a ditch in a rural area about an hour's drive south of Calgary. Adrian McCall had been murdered.

Investigators worked around the clock as they gathered evidence in hopes of catching her killer. But despite their best efforts, the case went cold. That's probably one of the hardest things to wake up every day and know that somebody responsible is having a life of their own right now. You know, we do not forget about these cases.

I'm Nancy Hixt, a senior crime reporter for Global News. Today on Crime Beat, I share the lengthy and heartbreaking journey her family took on the long road to justice. In February of 2002, just days into the homicide investigation, officers spoke to all of Adrienne McCall's family, friends, co-workers, anyone who might have information that could lead them to her killer.

That's when police learned Adrian had a boyfriend. But no one had seen or heard from Stéphane Perrant in days. He didn't attend her funeral, and no one had been able to reach him. Adrian's father, Blair McCall, remembers meeting him for the first time. A fancy dresser, jewelry, lots of gel in his hair, big watch, really expensive clothing.

We'd go out for supper and he would only order the most expensive wines. And it appeared to me the relationship between the two of them was pretty good. He seemed to really dote on her. He called her princess. Stéphane Perrant was born in Ottawa, Ontario and was raised in Gatineau, Quebec. He was just very jovial. He had a ton of friends.

His half-sister, Julie Schmidt, said Stéphane was athletic, and at age 18, he moved to the south of France. He had played professional football over in Europe, and he was very much into sports. It seemed like his whole life revolved around sports: hockey, football, anything sports.

When he returned to Canada, he started working in nightclubs. Stefan was married for a brief time in the mid-90s, before he moved to Calgary in 2000, when he applied for a job at a bar owned by Adrian's stepfather, John McGee, called Studio 82. I told him that if he dated any of the staff, that I would release him. And, of course, he ended up dating my daughter, Aiden.

Stéphane Perrant was nearly 12 years older than Adrienne. So when they started dating, she was 19 and he was 31. But Adrienne's father, Blair, said the age gap didn't seem to bother her. Adrienne was very mature. And I mean, obviously, I was aware of it. I didn't know exactly what it was. I didn't ask birth dates. But he seemed to relate to Adrienne and she to him quite well.

Her best friend Shandi Bard remembers early 2001. They were thrilled when Adrian and Stefan shared the news they were expecting a baby. A lot of changes, right? A lot of things to get used to, but she was really, really excited.

Just nobody in our friend group was quite at that stage in their life. So it was a bit of a shock. But she embraced it and she was very serious and, you know, started taking her vitamins and doing all the things that, you know, moms start doing. But in October of that year, they were heartbroken when the baby was stillborn. Blair said his daughter was inconsolable.

She was very upset. I know she told me it was the hardest thing that she'd ever had to go through in her life. Julie remembers getting a phone call with the tragic news. It was devastating for them both. They were really looking forward to this baby. Both of them were really excited about it.

Months later, Julie and Stefan's mother called with more shocking news. She is hysterical and she is screaming that Adrian's dead. Adrian's dead and Stefan's still missing. And it was more about, you know, that they were going to find Stefan dead as well.

You'll recall from the last episode that Adrian's stepfather, John McGee, returned home from a golf trip to discover Adrian missing along with his car. Her body was later found near the rural southern Alberta town of Nanton. Days into the homicide investigation, investigators tracked down the 2001 Mercury Marquis at a park-and-fly lot at the Calgary airport.

Primary homicide investigator RCMP Corporal Peter LeBlanc said they found several key pieces of evidence in the trunk of the vehicle. I believe a parking ticket was in there, park and fly, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a whole lot because it tells you exactly when a person parked that car there. And that's important.

The ticket stub was dated February 15, 2002 at 4:58 a.m., the day after Adrian McCall was last seen alive. Police were able to determine Stephane Perrant took a flight with WestJet that day. The RCMP tracked down the original WestJet customer service representative who dealt with him, Denise Meliola. She was interviewed during the course of the investigation.

So generally the customer service agents at that time, because as you know now WestJet has just podiums and you basically check yourself in. But if we go back a few years, we had the counters. So we manned the counters. So new ticket sales, checking people in for flights, inquiry, answering inquiries, sometimes helping with the gate.

Meliola said a lot has changed over the years. You book online, you check yourself in, you check your bag in. You don't need to talk to anybody from the company. The only time you'd have an exchange is when you're going on the plane to show your ID. Back in 2002, there was a lot more human interaction, from purchasing to taking a flight. And that's what police wanted her to describe. Opening, early morning, gentleman comes up and asks to buy a ticket.

From what I recall, it was kind of what's the next flight out and kind of looked it up on the computer and paid cash. You had a lot of cash.

and it was a roll of money and he counted the money out in cash. It did stick out somewhat because people don't generally use cash and at the time, because we've got to go back so many years, like $600 for a flight was quite a bit of money. So it was a bit surprising that there was that much cash for a last minute ticket, full price to go somewhere.

I did comment like, it's a lot of cash, be safe with that. It's not safe to carry that much kind of cash. Corporal LeBlanc said records showed Stéphane Perrant bought a one-way ticket to Ottawa departing Calgary at 7:30 a.m. We jumped on the plane, WestJet plane, and we flew to Ottawa. He's classified as a person of interest, so he has a story to tell. He has something to tell us.

Don't know exactly what it would be, but there is something that I'm sure he can share with us because he was in a relationship with Adrian and he was in Calgary and he left Calgary shortly after Valentine's Day, in the early morning hours, the next morning. And we'd be more than happy to sit down with him.

The problem was, while police knew Stephane Perrant flew to Ottawa, that's all the information they had. We teamed up with our public relations, media relations people in A Division who were excellent, excellent to work with. And we also contacted Carol Beaucair, the mother of Stephane Perrant, and asked, talked to her, do you know where Stephane is?

so on and so forth. She knew what happened to Adrian and she didn't know where he was. So we talked about could he be missing and should we look at missing persons? So we did. She agreed. A Division is the previous name for National RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa.

Investigators from Alberta worked with officers there to issue a missing persons press release that included Stéphane Perrant's photo. And it worked because we ended up establishing contact. His mother established contact with him as well. This went on for a few days, back and forth, phone calls. He would call me regularly.

call his mother. It was sort of like, we'll say it was like a cat and mouse game where I had the opportunity to say, "Stefan, you know, we'd invite you to come and talk to us, please, you know, share with us what you can help us with, help us with this investigation." And long story short, it never happened. It never happened. We never established. He never did come out. He just told us that he was okay.

While in Ottawa, police spoke to people who knew Perrant. And what they said was surprising. I guess for a lack of a better word, that he was not a very nice person. That's really what we learned. Stefan was, and this isn't my opinion, this is the opinion of many people that we spoke to who were colleagues, who were employers. And he was a very smooth talker.

Any conversations he had always escalated. They either started really angry, you know that forceful anger comes out, and I talk to him in a calm manner and I generally bring him down and then sometimes he'd cry on the phone and say things on the phone. I mean the conversations were all recorded of course. Corporal LeBlanc and his partner were in Ottawa for about a week.

And as the investigation continued, they went back and forth from Calgary several times. Recently, we traveled to Ottawa, which would be probably the third trip that I've made to Ottawa. The other two trips were to talk to him that we were unable to either reach him, or when we did reach him on the phone, he wouldn't agree to speak to us. Stéphane Perrant remained a person of interest. What we did establish was

Stefan was spoiled. He was raised by his mother. He was not necessarily nice to her, downright mean to her when he talked to her on the phone. He treated her with disrespect, disregard. When he wanted something and he got it, he was all good. But if he called her and wanted money and she didn't give it to him, then he would berate her, hang up on her, things like that. But that was her child.

And she loved him. So it made it difficult for us to have her as an ally. I should note, Corporal LeBlanc told me as the investigation unfolded, they believed Stéphane Perrant was responsible for another crime that happened right around the time Adrian disappeared.

You'll recall from the previous episode, police said there was a break-in at John McGee's bar, Studio 82, and several thousand dollars was taken. Given Adrian's family and friends said the couple was experiencing financial problems, investigators found it suspicious that he showed up at the airport with a large amount of cash.

But Stephon Perrant was never charged in connection with the break-in or theft. As the homicide investigation continued, police learned Adrian's relationship with Stephon Perrant had deteriorated following the loss of their child. His half-sister, Julie Schmidt, recalls that he was by Adrian's side for a few days, but not long after, he took off. Was supportive for about a week.

And then he was tired of her crying. And he called me and he's like, I don't know what to do. All Adrian does is lie in bed and cry, cry, cry. I'm so sick of listening to her cry. He goes, I got to get out of here. And he took off on vacation, went to the Caribbean. Adrian's best friend, Shandi Bard, also remembers that incredibly difficult time. They had already been encountering some financial issues.

And I think the baby on top of it just kind of compiled everything. And I think after that, it just set a snowball effect going. Perrant returned from vacation and the couple spent Christmas of 2001 together with Shandi's family. At that time, Blair McCall said Adrian started to open up to him about the problems in her relationship.

She did tell me they had had to pawn some things to pay some bills, but there was a number of things she had no idea where they went. She just assumed that he'd pawned them. She did tell me that there had been one incident of domestic violence, I guess we'll call it. She didn't call it that, but where she'd been hit and she didn't really give me, she wouldn't give me a lot of details. She didn't give me details exactly why and what happened.

There's no record of Stéphane Perrant being charged for domestic violence against Adrienne. But as a veteran RCMP officer, Blair was concerned about his daughter. That's why I told her it just doesn't go away. And I did tell her anybody that would hit her or hit a woman, period, a man that hit a woman, is probably capable of anything. And that... But she said she...

She wasn't afraid of him at the time. And in fact, when I sort of went on for a while, she started to get angry at me. And that was the first time in her life she'd been angry with me. On February 13th, a day before she was last seen alive, Adrienne borrowed money from Shandy.

She essentially was looking for money to put down a deposit on items that they had pawned. In all honesty, that was the first time I realized how bad it had gotten, just because it wasn't like her to reach out of her comfort zone and ask for help. And then when I realized what she needed the money for, I started to really understand kind of how far in debt they had gotten themselves.

John McGee told police he knew his stepdaughter had planned to see Perrant in the days leading up to her disappearance. Because of a court appearance, they were required to attend. It was told that she phoned in Wednesday at 11.30, which was the hour of her life. Said she couldn't make it to her test upon the court. Corporal LeBlanc confirmed Adrian was at Calgary Provincial Court on February 13th for Stéphane Perrant's trial.

LeBlanc said he was charged following a traffic stop that included charges of impaired operation of a motor vehicle, obstructing a peace officer, and failing to stop for a peace officer. He was later convicted of obstructing a peace officer.

But back on February 13th, officers attending court noted the couple had a heated conversation outside the courtroom and called homicide investigators to report the interaction after learning Adrian was murdered. Corporal LeBlanc said a few of Adrian's colleagues also came forward to police detailing several disturbing incidents. There was witnesses to choking where he choked her.

But there was also witnesses that said that she could give it as much as he could. You know, she stood up to him basically at times. But it was a very rocky relationship to the point where John McGee, the owner of Studio 82, had to release both of them from employment. So they no longer worked at Studio 82 because it

it was causing some troubles with the business itself. And it came to be expected that when they came to work, the two of them, there was going to be a fight of some sort, arguments and hollering, things like that. Stephane Perron's half-sister Julie said it was clear to her that by early 2002, Adrienne was ready to move on. She had called me and told me

I can't do this anymore with Stefan. Like, we are not doing well together. And I'm going to tell him that, you know, I'm going to move back to Vancouver and be with my mom. And that was the last time I spoke with her. It was right before Valentine's Day. By now, you might suspect, as family, friends, and police did, that Stefan Perrant was involved in Adrian McCall's death.

But Corporal LeBlanc said they needed proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We had a really good circumstantial case with witnesses, with prior things that took place, all those things. We didn't leave any stones unturned when it came to that. We went heavy on the forensic side of things is what we had to do.

You'll remember that forensic specialist Constable Dunlap attended both the rural scene near Nantan, where Adrienne's body was found, as well as the townhouse in Calgary, where she lived with her stepfather. He worked tirelessly examining exhibits. The black plastic bags that were at the scene where the body had been found, I put them into a

like a fish tank. And I used cyanoacrylate ester, CA, to develop fingerprints. But I didn't develop any identifiable fingerprints. The technique Corporal Dunlap used was considered cutting edge in 2002. And it was disappointing when results didn't push the case forward.

You're just hoping that you haven't missed anything and at the same time you could preserve the evidence so as the technologies get better, you could assist. We wanted to do DNA testing on the bags, but there just wasn't enough for DNA at the time. But Corporal LeBlanc said there was one more avenue to pursue. So this new process

sort of came around and it's called Y chromosome testing. The testing would be done at a lab in the United States. Generally in homicide investigations, you know, if we needed something, they found the money for it, which always amazed me. We never, ever, not very often ever got turned down. So anyway, I put it forward and it was approved. So we sent the bags in and they tested them.

Unfortunately, LeBlanc said the testing didn't lead to the break in the case he hoped for. The case went cold. Years went by and no arrests were made in Adrienne's murder. John McGee, Shandi Bard, and Blair McCall banded together to do all they could to make sure her case remained in the spotlight.

Well, every year is, you think it's probably going to get easier and it gets tougher every year. So it's a tough thing to go through. That's probably one of the hardest things to wake up every day and know that somebody responsible is having a life of their own right now. The cases not went cold. They've assured me of that.

I believe they're working hard on it. And I believe that they will bring the guilty person back and they will convict her. But investigators didn't give up on Adrian's case. And over the years, it's estimated 200 officers worked on the homicide as the RCMP tried to push it forward for prosecution. You know, we do not forget about these cases. That's RCMP Inspector Chad Koroluk.

In 2013, 11 years after Adrian's homicide, he took a fresh look at the file. Stephon Perrant was certainly identified as a suspect early on in this case. As we progressed with the investigation, we also looked at potential alternative suspects.

Some of those people included other employees that worked at Studio 82 with Stéphane Perrant and Adrian. It included some of Adrian's family members, an ex-boyfriend, in addition to other tips that we had to look at that

potentially pointed the investigation in a different direction. So certainly we looked at exploring all those avenues and explored them as far as we possibly could and were satisfied that we had cleared all other potential suspects and that included obtaining fingerprints and DNA from some of those other alternative suspects.

Police said only one suspect remained, Stéphane Perrant. We were ultimately looking at ways to strengthen this case as it was certainly very circumstantial.

At one point, Perrant became the target of an undercover operation. You know, it's very important, you know, when we work on these types of cases that we explore absolutely any possible avenue. And that did include some covert investigative techniques and strategies over the years. And unfortunately, the covert techniques didn't prove to be fruitful and didn't provide the evidence that we were looking for.

If you're a longtime listener of Crime Beat, you'll be familiar with the tactic police attempted, a traditional Mr. Big sting operation. These are undercover operations where police often create a ruse involving a fake criminal organization with the goal of getting the suspect to confess to a crime boss, a.k.a. Mr. Big.

They did this right around the time the technique was in the news, after a major Supreme Court of Canada ruling, which gave stricter rules for how police can extract confessions in these operations.

It made them presumptively inadmissible in court. Meaning, prosecutors have to prove the evidence is reliable and that the value of the evidence collected in the sting operation outweighs its prejudicial effect. In this case, Stéphane Perrant didn't fall for the sting and there was no confession.

RCMP Inspector Chad Korolek would need to find other evidence. I reviewed all the forensic evidence with members of my team and looked at changing technologies, what advancements had taken place between 2002 and the time that we were working on it, and looked at what submissions we could make to try to get better forensic evidence and make some of those exhibits more probative.

The garbage bags found in the ditch with Adrian's body were tested again with new techniques that weren't available in 2002. In 2013, we were able to

collect very valuable evidence from those bags. We used a technology called vacuum metal deposition, which is one of the most sensitive and one of the, I guess, best techniques in fingerprint evidence. And through that technique, we were able to identify two fingerprints on one of the bags. And in the end, those two fingerprints were matched to the suspect, Stéphane Perrant.

Police also took the opportunity to send the jeans, found at the Calgary airport, away for testing. You'll recall they were found two parking spots away from John McGee's marquee. That was another crucial exhibit.

as there was blood found on one of the pant legs that ultimately matched Adrian. And there was also DNA found on the inside pockets of the jeans, which later matched Stéphane Perrant, which would indicate that he was likely wearing those jeans at one point in time. Police also re-interviewed Stéphane Perrant's half-sister, Julie Schmidt, who he had called following the discovery of Adrian's body.

Stefan calls me and he's not crying or anything, but he's like, "Oh, you know, I can't believe this has happened. My Adrian's gone." And I was like, "Well, like what happened?" And he goes on to tell me that that morning he was going to Ottawa to go hang out with his guy friends.

And so the morning he was leaving, Adrian got up early and drove him to the airport and dropped him off. And the last he saw was her driving away. She was in John's car, driving John's car, and she was driving out of the airport. Now, granted, this was really early in the morning, so he said it was very dark out.

and he watched her drive away. And he said, "I'm just sure there was someone at that airport watching her and saw her drive out of the parking lot and followed her and killed her." And I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is nuts!" According to Julie, that wasn't the only version Perrant gave her. It's like a day or two later,

And he calls me again and he goes, "Well, Adrienne was finally sound asleep. I haven't seen her sleep that sound in months and I didn't want to wake her up. So I went and got the keys for the car and I drove myself to the airport."

And he says, "I think someone saw me left the apartment and knew she was in there alone and broke in and killed her." Julie said she was shocked. And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You just told me two days ago she drove you to the airport." And he was like, "Oh, I was just, I was crazy, out of my mind. You know, I didn't know what I was saying."

No, no, I drove myself to the airport and I parked the car and got on the airplane. And I hung the phone up and I had goosebumps and I knew, I knew that second he was somehow involved. I believe that he came over, he was trying to win her back right, because I think it was right at Valentine's Day.

I think he went back to John McGee's. I think he was trying to wow her and win her back. And she just went, uh-uh, I'm out of here. Can't do this anymore. And I think he snapped. I honestly think he just snapped. Nearly 16 years after Adrian McCall was murdered, the RCMP had new evidence.

But was it enough to lay charges against her boyfriend, Stéphane Perrant? Generally, cases don't get better in time. Senior prosecutor Shane Parker was up for the challenge and took on the case. Proof beyond reasonable doubt is a difficult hurdle to get by. There's no doubt about it. It's there for a reason. It has to be proof beyond reasonable doubt so that innocent people don't spend time in jail unnecessarily.

It's the gaps in the evidence. So in this particular case, a number of witnesses who were really pretty instrumental had passed away in the meantime. The ME had passed away. Adrienne's stepdad, who she was living with at that time, had passed away. You're also then dealing with having to remember that there are certain things that we look for for evidence now, CCTV, digital footprints, cell phones, that were not in existence in 2002.

Parker said, despite the difficulties, it was the first time justice for Adrian appeared to be within reach. So the footprints of life was the biggest part for us in terms of that's what you need to rely on jury to know when Adrian died and where Adrian died. That then narrows your pool of potential suspects down to a very, very small number. One.

And then you look at the forensic evidence that now goes with that, fingerprint on the bag, the jeans by the vehicle, and a one-way ticket out of town paying cash. There's your evidence. Beyond reasonable doubt, it was Stéphane Perrin who killed Adrian McCall.

On February 17th, 2018, 16 years to the day after Adrian's body was found in a ditch near Nantan, Stéphane Perrant was arrested in Quebec. And for the first time since her murder, Perrant returned to Alberta, flown by the RCMP to stand trial in Calgary.

In September of 2021, Shane Parker gave his opening statement to the jury. This was an acrimonious relationship that has good times and has bad times. And strangling someone is a very intimate way to kill. The other thing with Adrian is there was no signs of sexual assault. There was no break in at the McGee house. How come there wasn't a bloody scene at Killarney? Well, if it was a stranger who decided to break in and attacked Adrian McCall,

The stranger doesn't care what the place looks like. They're just going to leave a crime scene and take off with Adrian and go do what they're ever going to do. But if you think the scene is going to implicate you, you've got to clean the scene. Then there was his half-sister's testimony and the two very different explanations she said he gave her. In both his stories,

he is alluding to foul play, and this is before a lot of details of the crime ever would have become known. And in his story where he changed it from she's abducted at the airport or sometime after the airport drop-off to now being abducted in the home, subconsciously, Stéphane Perrin knows the detail of the case that only the killer would know.

The killing happened at Killarney Glen because we know from the bed sheet that's the connection to the crime scene. So that is significant evidence that comes out in early 2018. Stéphane Perrant didn't testify, but his lawyer did present evidence. His defense was always going to be, it wasn't me. The autopsy says February 17th, 4 p.m.

And he became fixated that that was the time Adrian died. Because that was the time recorded on the autopsy report, which was the exact same time as, of course, the RCMP attended the scene and found Adrian's body. But he became fixated that that was going to be the time that Adrian died. I should note, I've seen that autopsy report. It was made an exhibit during the trial.

Just as Shane said, the date and time of death field is filled out February 17th, 2002 at 4 p.m., which is when the police attended the scene where Adrian was found near Nanton. This field on the autopsy report form has to be filled in by the medical examiner. And you might think that they put in some sort of estimate of when death occurred. But that is not the case.

Despite what you might see on a lot of television crime dramas, time of death isn't always precise. So in this case, the time and date given is the only exact time officials could provide. Medical examiners cannot give you a time of death because there's a lot of variables. And in this particular case, our argument was Adrienne was exposed to the elements. She was partially frozen.

Any kind of lividity or other markers of decomposition that you might be able to do to extrapolate a range are going to be inaccurate. You've got winter elements, you've got changing temperatures, but all fairly consistent to that right around the freezing mark, where you're going to have times during the day where she may have slightly warmed up, and other times at night, of course, when she's going to be frozen.

The defense theory was that Perron was already in Ottawa when Adrian was killed, full stop. That's their defense. Defense called a witness to support that theory. Defense pitch was, she did die on the 16th or 17th.

Because there was some people who, again, much further south of Alberta, much further south in southern Alberta, I think another 45 to an hour away, saw a woman running through a field. And that could have been Adrienne. That was one of their pitches. And they called evidence on that.

But police had already investigated that strange coincidence and determined that it wasn't Adrian running through a field that day. It really did happen and they called the people who were in the car that were driving to an airport from Lethbridge to the Calgary airport who witnessed a woman who was wearing a tan jacket and some other piece of clothing which again didn't match up to what Adrian was wearing.

coming from a vehicle that seemed to have no connection to anything in a farmer's field, as I say, about 47 minutes away from by highway driving to where Adrian came to rest. Don't forget, in 2002, this was big news. And it was on the front page of the papers and people were looking for clues as to how this woman ended up in Nanton at the side of the road.

So there was a lot of coverage for it and people wanted to call in as much help as they could. And the RCMP, to their credit, looked at all of these tips, they documented them, they went back and investigated them. Defence also called evidence from a forensic pathologist who opined that Adrian was killed sometime after Perrant left Calgary and therefore could not have been the killer.

Court documents show that opinion was based solely on the pathologist's review of the crime scene and autopsy photos. In the end, it was up to the jury to weigh the evidence and decide Stéphane Perrant's fate. There were no eyewitnesses. It wasn't a confession case. It was a straight, here's the facts. You get to make the argument in front of the jury and you let their common sense

and guided by the law, get a verdict. Which is the way the system is supposed to work. Everyone gets their day in court. You make your arguments, you make your pitch. And so I found it was a challenging case, but I really relished that challenge because Adrian deserved to have that moment. The family and friends of Adrian really deserved to have that moment. The case was never going to get any better.

The case was never going to get any better. It was now or never to try the case and, you know, to let the outcome fall where it may. Jurors deliberated for just over two hours before they came back with a verdict. They found Stephon Perrant guilty of the second-degree murder of Adrienne McCall. Adrienne's best friend Shandi and her father Blair left court feeling a huge sense of relief.

Once the trial was finished, I definitely felt a weight come off my shoulders that I didn't realize I'd been carrying for 20 years. It definitely helped a piece of the healing. He's where he belongs to be. I hope he never gets out. And those dates are only he can apply for. It doesn't mean he's entitled to it. And he may not get out after 17 years if he applies and they don't think he's worthy.

I should note, after the guilty verdict was handed down, Perrant called his defense team over to the prisoner's box and fired them. He was unrepresented for sentencing. From the prisoner's box, he made submissions to the justice in both English and French. Perrant was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years.

He has since appealed that sentence. A ruling on that appeal has yet to be made. He also appealed his conviction, but Alberta's top court unanimously dismissed it in September of 2023, almost 22 years after Adrian McCall was killed. His second-degree murder conviction stands.

Perrant hasn't spoken to his half-sister Julie since the day she told him his two stories didn't add up. I knew from the day I had the conversation with him when he told me that second story. I just didn't know how long it was going to take. But, you know, thank goodness for advances in DNA because that's what ultimately caught him.

More than two decades after Adrienne McCall was murdered, the rancher who found her still thinks about that day. Yeah, I think about it quite often, actually. I heard various reports of that guy, and I'm certainly glad that it was finally put to bed. Adrienne's stepfather, John McGee, never lived to see her killer behind bars.

The road to justice was a long one, and not without collateral damage. Adrian's brother struggled to cope with her death. He turned to alcohol and died before the trial. And I've lost both my kids to this, and it's... There's no way I can really make sense of it at all. I still can't. I don't believe there is closure. You do, you analyze everything...

What did I know? When did I know it? And what could I have, what should I have said? What, I didn't think for a minute I'd be in this position or my family, you know, and Adrian's friends, we'd all be in this position, but boy, things changed in a flash. Over the years, her father, Blair, and her best friend, Shandy, have developed a very special bond. Adrian's death left a heartache no one can heal.

But the love they shared for her and the memories they hold close, no one, not even Stéphane Perrant, could steal. If you are the victim of domestic abuse or know someone who is, there is help available. In Canada, you can call the Assaulted Women's Helpline toll-free at 1-866-863-0511.

If you're listening outside of Canada, please reach out to your local crisis support line or call 911. Crime Beat is written and produced by me, Nancy Hixt, with producer Dila Velasquez. Audio editing and sound design is by Rob Johnston. Special thanks to photographer-editor Danny Lantella for his work on this episode.

Thank you to Jesse Wisner, our Crime Beat production assistant. And thanks to Chris Bassett, the VP of Network Content, Production and Distribution and Editorial Standards for Global News. I would love to have you tell a friend about this podcast. There are five seasons of stories you can listen to and share. And please consider rating and reviewing Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

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